Perfect Glory
Author Donna Fowler
Cover art by Donna Barnhart
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2011 Donna Fowler
Smashwords Edition License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase another copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This book is dedicated to Sabrina, Makayla, Lukas, Logan and Owen
Chapter 1
Glory looked in the mirror and admired herself one last time. She gave her hair a final stroke with the brush and smirked at her reflection. She knew she was perfect.
“Glory” her mother called from downstairs. “You’re going to have to hurry, dear”.
Glory picked up her schoolbooks and her new purse, ignoring the mounds of new clothes on the bed and floor that she had tried on and discarded while getting ready for school. The maid would hang them back up. Glory stepped carefully down the stairs so she wouldn’t scuff her shiny new shoes.
“Why, mother? I still have half an hour before you take me to school”.
“I’m not going to be able to drive you to school today, love. The car was acting funny on my way home from my meeting last night. I have to take it in to the shop first thing this morning. You’re going to have to walk to school today” her mother said.
“But Motherrrrr! I can’t walk to school! The wind will mess up my hair! And what if it rains? Everything will be ruined!” Glory cried.
“Now, princess, there isn’t a cloud in the sky and only a very light breeze this morning. It’s only six blocks. I’m sure nothing will be ruined” her mother said.
“Why can’t daddy take me, then?” Glory wailed.
“Daddy got called in to the store early. One of the salesmen found a pipe leaking when he came in and it was soaking some of the merchandise”.
"But my shoes will get all scuffed and dirty! Only poor kids walk to school” Glory pouted.
“I’m so sorry, princess, but we have no choice. I’m afraid the car may not even make it to the garage and it is in the opposite direction from the school. Please, love, I’m so sorry. Now, come, gather your books and let’s get going”.
Glory picked up her books and started walking slowly to the door.
“I don’t know how long it will take to get the car fixed” her mother said softly. “If I’m not there to pick you up after school, you’ll have to walk home, too”.
“MOTHER! You’re ruining my life! How can I show my face? I don’t walk! We’re rich!” Glory screeched.
“I’m really sorry, princess. But it’s just one day. Rich or not, there isn’t anything I can do about it right now. Now, go, love, so you won’t be late”.
“But you were supposed to pick me up after school to take me shopping for my birthday” Glory whined.
“We can go later, after your father gets home. We’ll go out to dinner tonight, too. I have to go now, Glory. I love you. Have a wonderful day” her mother called as she got into the car.
“Wonderful day. Oh, sure” Glory muttered. It was a horrible day, Glory thought as she started walking slowly up the sidewalk toward the school. She hunched her shoulders and buried her head toward the books she held tightly against her chest. She was so embarrassed she could just die. She prayed no one would see her walking. It was just unthinkable; Glory Roberts, walking to school.
There were voices coming from up the block. Glory looked up and saw some kids walking about a half a block away. She hurried to the corner and turned to the left. Maybe no one would see her if she went through the business district. She walked three blocks up and turned to the right.
The street was lined with gift shops and antique stores. All the doors were closed and the lights off. Glory paid scant attention as she hurried down the street. She was pouting and still praying no one would see her walking. It was just humiliating.
Once she was within sight of the school, she raised her head. She wouldn’t cower and be ashamed, she decided. She was Glory Roberts, the richest girl in school. Her daddy owned Roberts Fine Home Furnishings, the biggest business in town. He owned the stores in Hancock and Compton, too.
No, she wouldn’t cower. She would just pretend she had wanted to walk to school today. She walked proudly up the steps into the school, her head held high. She would just dare anyone to say anything to her!
Once inside, Glory ducked into the girls’ bathroom. She set her books on the edge of the sink and took her comb out of her purse. She combed her hair and then wet a paper towel to wipe her face.
She knelt down and used the wet towel to wipe the dust off of her shoes. She hated dirty shoes. There was a small scratch on her right shoe. It figured. Her whole day had been horrible. Now her shoes were ruined, she thought as she scrubbed at the scratch. She smiled and decided she would make her mother buy her two new pair when they went shopping tonight. Her mother couldn’t really expect her to wear these again now that they were ruined, could she?
Glory stood up, washed her hands and then put on lip gloss. She combed her hair again and then inspected herself in the mirror. She brushed imaginary lint and dirt from her blouse and pants, making sure they were straight. She smirked. Still perfect!
She picked up her books and headed for her homeroom class. She was a bit earlier than usual and the room was deserted.
She took her seat and waited for her best friend, Paige Stanford, to come in. Paige’s father owned the ‘Turf and Sand’ out on the highway. It was a very elegant and expensive restaurant specializing in steak and seafood. The Stanford’s weren’t quite as rich as the Robert’s, but they had enough to be considered the second richest family in town.
Glory heard footsteps approaching the room. She turned to see Jenny Morgan walking in the door. Jenny was wearing worn, faded jeans and a rumpled blouse. Her sneakers were old and dirty looking and her hair was messy. ‘She looks so poor’, thought Glory. ‘She could at least comb her hair before she comes to school. I feel so sorry for anyone that can’t be like me. I would never wear old clothes. And those nasty-looking shoes... It’s too bad everyone can’t be as perfect and as rich as I am’. Glory smirked to herself.
“Hello, Glory. You look nice today. Your blouse is a very pretty color” Jenny smiled. Jenny was always nice to everyone, and always had a smile on her face. Glory couldn’t really understand how Jenny could be so happy when her family was so poor.
“Yes, it is, isn’t it?” Glory replied. “Don’t you have enough money to buy a comb?”
Jenny’s cheeks turned slightly pink. “I had to help get my younger brothers ready for school this morning. I guess maybe I forgot to brush my hair.” Jenny smiled, not seeming to care a whole lot. “My mother had to go in to work early to set up for a breakfast banquet at the restaurant”.
Glory turned back around in her seat. She couldn’t be caught talking to Jenny Morgan. Jenny was poor, after all. Glory knew that Jenny’s mother worked as a waitress at the ‘Turf and Sand’. That was almost like being a servant. Glory wondered sometimes where Jenny’s father was, but there was no way she would ever admit to being curious enough about Jenny to ask anyone.
Glory sat and studiously ignored the other kids coming into the room. Jenny said good morning to and smiled at everyone. Jenny knew and was friends with everyone. Glory didn’t acknowledge anyone. Jenny could be nice to them; they were all poor like her. Only Glory and Paige and one other boy in the class were rich. Richard Maxwell’s father was an attorney. Glory didn’t really like Richard very much, but she was friends with him because her mother said that Richard’s father was in their club. That meant that they had a lot of money, too.
Glory heard Jenny say “Good morning, Paige”.
Paige ignored her and walked to her seat next to Glory.
“Can you believe the nerve of some people?” Paige hissed. “I hope she doesn’t ever hold her breath waiting for me to say hello to her!”
“What are you doing tonight, Paige? Can you come over this weekend?” Glory asked quietly.
“No, Gran is picking me up after school. We have to go to Uncle Edward’s for a family celebration dinner tonight, and they are having a huge party this weekend for my cousin. He got his acceptance letter to Harvard. I’ll be there until Sunday” Paige replied. "What are you doing tonight?”
“Mom is picking me up after school to go shopping for my birthday. We’re going to get the stuff for my party at the club next week, too” Glory said. She would never admit, especially to Paige, that she might have to walk home.
The teacher walked into the room then. Glory opened her book and got her papers ready for class. She dreaded the thought of another endless weekend with nothing to do. Paige had a huge family and they were always busy doing things. Glory had no one but her parents and Paige. Her parents never did anything fun. Her father was always working at one of the stores and her mother was always busy with her committee meetings. Other than the shopping trip, she had nothing planned for the weekend, nothing at all.
Sometimes she wished she had more friends. But who could she be friends with? She couldn’t invite Richard over. He was a boy. And she didn’t even really like him. The other families that belonged to the club had no children her age. They were all much older or much younger. And she couldn’t associate with any of the other kids in her class at school.
Glory moped through her classes all morning, feeling sorry for herself. She took out a couple of library books to read over the weekend. May as well, there would be nothing else to do. It had just been an awful day. She felt sad and angry at the same time.
At lunch, Glory sat morosely listening to Paige as she chattered excitedly about the party her cousin was having over the weekend. There was to be a pool party and a cookout and lots of games like croquet and tennis and volleyball. They could even ride horses if they wanted to.
Suddenly, Glory felt something wet splatter against her face and shirt. She shrieked and jumped up.
“Oh, you idiot!” she yelled. “Look what you’ve done! You’ve ruined my blouse!”
A boy named Brian Howard had a ketchup packet in his hand and a stunned, guilty look on his face. He was staring at the big red splotch of ketchup on Glory’s blouse.
Glory ran for the girls’ bathroom. She fumed as she wet a paper towel and wiped her face. She mopped at her blouse, smearing the ketchup stain even further across it. Paige came in laughing. That made Glory even madder.
“This isn’t funny! He ruined my blouse! Why are you laughing?” Glory demanded.
“I know it isn’t funny. I was laughing at the look on his face. And because he had about 20 ketchup packages in front of him. He was eating ketchup for lunch!” Paige explained. She tried to help Glory wipe the stain off of her shirt. It wouldn’t come out no matter how hard they scrubbed.
“My new blouse is ruined!” Glory wailed. “I’m going to tell him so, too”.
Glory turned and stomped out of the bathroom. She stomped all the way down the hall and back into the lunchroom. She was so mad she could scream. And scream she did as she stomped right up in front of Brian Howard.
“You idiot! What did you think you were doing? How could you be so stupid and clumsy?” Glory ranted.
“I...I... I...’m s...s...sorry” Brian stammered his face pale. “It w...w...was an a...a...accident”.
“S...S...Sorry?” Glory mocked. “Is that all you can do is stutter? If you weren’t so fat maybe you wouldn’t be so clumsy. And maybe you should get new glasses so you can see what you are doing! You ruined my blouse! I should make you pay for it! But maybe you should use the money for speech lessons instead so you can stop stuttering! Who is stupid enough to eat ketchup for lunch, anyway? It figures that anyone with two first names would be stupid”.
Brian looked like he was nearly in tears at Glory’s raving. He turned and ran out of the lunchroom.
“You didn’t have to be so mean, Glory“. Suddenly Jenny Morgan was in front of Glory. “Brian isn’t stupid and it was an accident. I saw it. The packet slipped out of his hand just as it tore. He didn’t do it on purpose. Why are you so mean? Just because you’re rich doesn’t make you better than everyone else! Brian was eating ketchup because his dad lost his job when the factory closed and they don’t have much money right now. He felt bad enough, but you didn’t have to be so mean and make him cry. He isn’t fat and no one can help it when they have to wear glasses. I don‘t even know why you’re so upset. You never wear the same clothes to school twice!”
Just then the lunch bell rang. Glory turned without saying another word. She was still angry and now Jenny was trying to make her feel bad. It was Brian’s fault that her new blouse was ruined. How dare Jenny try to make her feel bad for yelling at Brian? He deserved it. Jenny should have been on Glory’s side instead of defending Brian. Paige didn’t even stand up for her. She didn’t say a word. Oh, this was just a horrible day.
Glory couldn’t concentrate as she sat through her afternoon classes. She missed five questions on her science test because she was so upset. She felt like the whole world was against her. She was Glory Roberts. Other people were supposed to feel like this, not her. She was perfect.
Glory breathed a sigh of relief when the final bell rang at three o’clock. This horrible day was finally over. She didn’t even care anymore that she would be spending the weekend alone and bored. All she wanted to do was go home and hide in her bedroom until this awful feeling went away.
Glory walked slowly out the doors. She stood at the drive, waiting for her mother. Paige ran to her grandmother’s car.
“I’ll call you Sunday night when I get home, Glory! Have a wonderful weekend!” Paige called as she climbed into the car.
‘Wonderful weekend’. There were those words again. Glory was starting to feel like they were a curse.
Glory waited almost a half an hour for her mother to come. She finally gave up hoping that she was just late, picked up her books and started walking slowly toward home. At least most of the other kids in school were gone and no one would see her walking.
She was a block away from the school when she heard voices behind her. She turned to see Jenny walking with her younger brothers. Jenny was the last person she wanted to see right now. Glory walked faster and turned at the corner to go home the same way she had come to school.
Once she was out of sight of Jenny, Glory slowed her pace again. All of the stores she had passed that morning were now open. Glory looked at all the stuff in the windows of the stores lining the street. There were jewelry stores and gift shops and a shoe store. She spent several minutes looking at the shoes before she walked on. Even new shoes couldn’t lift her out of the mood that had settled around her.
Farther up the street, she heard music. There was an old piano sitting on the sidewalk in front of an antique store. The piano was playing itself. No one was sitting on the stool in front of it!
She started to get a creepy feeling until she noticed the front of the piano had a window, which showed paper rolled around a wheel turning inside. Her mother had an old music box that worked the same way. The paper covered prongs on the wheel. There were holes in the paper at different places that allowed the prongs to poke through, and the prongs hit bars that made the keys move and make sound. Glory watched the piano for a minute before she turned away. Even the pretty music didn’t improve her mood.
As she turned from the piano, she saw a mirror standing on the sidewalk. It was very large and oval and stood on a stand with legs. The legs had bars that came up and attached to the mirror. She walked closer to it. It was so pretty. It looked really old, but the mirror was perfect. A lot of times old mirrors got rusty-looking around the edges, but this one still looked fine.
Glory reached out and adjusted the mirror so that she could see herself from head to toe. The mirror swiveled easily between the bars holding its sides. She had never seen a mirror like it. She suddenly knew what she wanted for her birthday. This would be perfect! She could put it in her bedroom and she could admire her new clothes every morning when she got dressed!
She inspected herself a little closer. The ketchup stain had dried and didn’t look as bad as it had when it was wet. Jenny was right about that, anyway. Glory almost never wore her new clothes to school more than once. She was always getting new clothes. There was never any need to.
The sidewalk was crowded with people and someone bumped into the mirror, tilting it up. She adjusted the mirror again. Yes, this was what she wanted. Her mother would get it for her. She always gave Glory anything she wanted. She looked up to see the name of the store on the sign above the door. ‘All Things Wise and Wonderful’. What a stupid name for a store!
Glory turned back to the mirror. She admired her reflection for a moment. All the horrible things that had happened to her that day didn’t show. She still looked perfect.
The mirror seemed to ripple suddenly, like water on a pond. Glory leaned closer, wondering if the sunlight was playing tricks with her eyesight.
She saw the ripple again. She frowned, stepping closer to the mirror, only inches away from it now. What was wrong with it? Suddenly a man behind her turned and bumped into her, hard.
Glory lost her balance and fell toward the mirror. She cried out and put out her hands to catch herself, but there was nothing there. There was nothing solid in front of her. The mirror was like air as she felt it sucking her in.
She felt herself falling and falling. It seemed like the air around her was whooshing in her ears as she fell.
Chapter 2
“Oooof!” Glory hit the ground hard, knocking the breath out of her. She lay still for a moment, trying to breathe. Her palms were burning. So were her knees. It became a little easier to breathe and she pushed herself up, eyes filling with tears from the burning pain in her hands and knees. She brushed the dirt off of her scraped palms and looked down at her knees. Her pants were torn and scraped at both knees and covered with dirt.
Dirt?
“You knocked me over, you big, fat idiot!” She turned and yelled at the man that had bumped her.
There was no one there.
There was no one anywhere. The sidewalk was gone. The mirror and the piano were gone. The store was gone! Glory blinked several times as she looked around.
She was sitting in the middle of a dirt road. There was nothing but grass all around her, as far as she could see, with the dirt road stretching out ahead of her. Glory blinked again and wiped her eyes with the back of her hands.
Nothing had changed. There was still nothing there, nothing but grass and the road.
Where was she? What in the world had happened? A wave of dizziness hit her so hard she almost fell over again. She bent her head to rest it on her knees.
“Ouch!” Her knees were still tender from her fall. Glory looked around again.
“Hello?” She called. Nothing answered her. It was so quiet. She had never heard so much silence. She climbed shakily to her feet. She was shaking all over and felt sick to her stomach.
“Mother? Daddy?” she called.
Nothing but more silence answered her. She couldn’t even hear the wind blowing. No birds. Nothing.
Glory turned and looked around her again. Was she dead? Where was she? What had happened?
As she stood looking around, she thought she saw a dark line on the horizon in front of her. Trees? She looked the other directions. Nothing that way. She turned back to the dark horizon. It had to be trees. She took a few shaky steps in that direction. Her sore knees protested the steps.
Glory kept walking slowly toward the darkness on the horizon. Where were the people? Why was no one around? What in the world had happened? She was scared. She didn’t think she had ever felt fear before, not like this. She used to be scared of the dark when she was little, but that was baby fear compared to this. She was so scared she thought she was going to get sick. She couldn’t stop shaking.
She looked down at her feet and the dirt road as she walked. Her mind felt like it was spinning in circles. She pushed her hair away from her face. Her shoes were ruined. So were her pants.
Glory kept walking and walking, but the trees didn’t seem to get any closer. The sun was beating down and there was no real breeze. It was so hot. Her feet and her knees hurt. She was getting tired and thirsty.
I must be dreaming, she thought. I’m asleep and I’m having a nightmare. That’s all. I’ll wake up soon and be in my own bed in my own room. She had read somewhere that if you were dreaming you could pinch yourself in the dream and you wouldn’t feel it.
“Ow!” she cried. So much for that idea. She had to be dreaming, pinch or not.
After what felt like hours of walking, she looked up to find that the trees were closer finally. She could actually see the tops of them now. She sat down in the road for a minute to rest. Tears were streaming down her face. She was so tired and hot and thirsty. Where was everyone? Where was she at? Where were her mother and father? Did they even know she was gone?
Glory sat and cried for a while until her tears stopped flowing. It had to be at least five or six o’clock. Was anyone looking for her yet? Surely her mother would be getting worried because she hadn’t come in from school. What was she going to do if no one found her before it got dark? The fear returned. She felt like she had an elephant trampling inside her stomach.
Glory got to her feet and started walking. Sitting down had only made her knees, feet and legs stiff. Her new shoes were rubbing blisters on her heels and her feet ached. She was so tired all over.
As Glory walked on, she became aware of a sound. It had grown louder so slowly that she almost hadn’t even noticed it. It was kind of a rumbling noise. It seemed to be coming from behind her.
She stopped and turned around, trying to locate the source of the sound. Off in the distance behind her she saw a dot on the road. She stood and watched it for a minute. Yes, it was definitely something. And it was getting closer.
“Oh, thank you! Thank you!” she cried. She had no idea who she was thanking. She didn’t care. Whoever was coming would help her. They would help her get home.
It took a while for the dot to get bigger. It also got louder as it got closer. It sounded like a hundred horses running in the total silence around her. When it got close enough for her to make out the shapes, she saw it was only four horses pulling a large wagon.
Glory started waving her arms in the air to flag the wagon down. Finally, someone to help her!
The wagon was moving fast. Glory stepped closer to the center of the road and kept waving her arms.
“Please, stop! Help me!” she yelled. Her arms stilled in midair. There was a huge creature sitting in the seat of the wagon. It was almost too big to be a man. The fear in her stomach returned and leaped into her throat. Her voice stopped working.
The wagon driver must have noticed her in the road at last. The huge wagon began slowing. Glory looked around for a place to hide. Suddenly she didn’t want any help from this person. Her heart was pounding in her chest as she realized she had nowhere to hide.
The creature in the wagon was huge. It looked like a frog sitting there, a frog the size of a grizzly bear. It had a flat, pointed head and no ears that she could see. It had no hair, either. The body was human shape, with a chest and arms and legs, but whatever it was, it wasn’t human. If her voice would have been working, she would have screamed.
The wagon pulled up in front of her and came to a stop. The creature even sounded like a frog, croaking out something she couldn’t understand. It looked angry. It croaked something else that had a demanding sound to it.
The creature reared back in its seat. It raised its arm and she heard a sharp crack near her ear. He was snapping a whip at her! She screamed as she turned and ran to the edge of the road. The driver cracked his whip at his team of horses. The horses bolted forward and the wagon began speeding away. She noticed that even the horses looked different than a normal horse. Glory could see two smaller creatures in the back of the wagon, both staring at her as it rolled away.
“Wait! Please come back! Please help me!” she cried, tears once again streaming down her face. Why hadn’t he helped her? Why had he left her there?
The dust that the wagon had stirred up from the dirt road settled on her wet cheeks, making muddy tracks down her face; the rest of the dry dust settled over her hair and clothing like powder.
Glory dropped to her knees in the road, sobbing. She was so hot and tired and thirsty she would have even accepted help from that ugly creature in the wagon.
Her clothes were ruined, filthy and torn. So were her shoes. Her hair was dirty, stringy and wet from sweating in the hot sun. She had no idea what had happened to her purse and books. She hadn’t even thought of them all this time. She felt coated in dirt from the wagon.
When her sobbing abated, she looked around. The sun was starting to get low in the sky, and her shadow stretched out long before her. She had to find somewhere to sleep for the night. She had to find a place to rest and water to drink. She was too worn out to be hungry.
Glory stood up and began walking again. She was so tired her whole body hurt. But what choice did she have? She didn’t want to sleep beside the road. Who knew what else might come along the road next?
The sun was nearly down by the time that she looked up and took in her surroundings again. Just up the road was what looked like a farm house.
The trees she had been walking toward all afternoon were close now. The tree line began on the other side of the farm house in the distance.
She started walking again, trying to hurry. She thought she could reach the farm house before it got fully dark. She was so exhausted she was weaving back and forth as she walked.
Just before the last rays of the sun lowered under the horizon, she reached the drive leading to the farm house.
Thank goodness, now she could get some water and rest. Surely the people who lived here would help her. Maybe they would call her parents to come get her. Her parents would be worried sick about her by now.
Glory trudged up the dirt drive toward the front of the farm house. As she drew near the porch, she slowed her steps. She could hear the same croaking voices that the creature on the wagon had. She quietly went around to the side of the house and peeked into the window. The frog creature was sitting in a chair in the center of the room, croaking at another frog creature standing near a doorway.
She turned and quietly snuck away. She was too afraid to ask for help from these things. They might not help her, anyway. She wondered if they caught her near their home if she would end up being tomorrow night’s dinner. She shivered both from fear and because, once the sun had set, it had cooled off greatly.
She walked quietly toward the back of the farm house, wondering what she should do. There was a large building that looked like a barn sitting across a small field. Glory began making her way toward it. Maybe she could find a place to hide in there and rest for a while.
As she walked in the door of the barn, she could hear animals rustling around in their stalls, whickering and snorting softly. She could also hear water running. She neared the back of the barn and found a pipe gushing water into one end of a trough. The trough drained out on the other side, running into a pond behind the barn.
Glory cupped her hand and filled it with the running water. It was icy cold. She carefully tasted it. It was sweet and clean tasting. She greedily drank until her hand grew numb from the icy water, then she drank directly from the pipe where the water bubbled out.
Once she had drunk as much as she could hold, she turned and surveyed her surroundings as well as she could in the mostly dark interior. All of the stalls seemed to be filled with strange looking animals. There were the funny looking horses and there were others that seemed like cows.
But where could she hide? Not in the stalls with the animals. They could step on her or even bite or kick her. She had to rest for a while. She was so tired she felt like she could drop.
There was a ladder near the middle of the barn. She looked up. There was another floor above the ladder. She walked over to it and started climbing up. She barely had enough strength left to pull herself over the edge of the floor. She looked around. There was dried grass everywhere. She walked over to a dark corner and sat down. She would surely be safe here for a little while. She sighed as she settled back on the grass and laid her head back. She would just rest for a little while. Just a little while, then she would figure out what to do next.
Chapter 3
The sound of something scraping the floor woke Glory. The sun was shining in through a small window. Where was she? She rubbed her eyes as she sat up. Her body felt stiff and sore, jogging her memory of the day before.
She had fallen asleep! Oh, no! Now what was she going to do? How was she going to sneak away from this place in the daylight without being seen?
Glory crawled to the edge of the upper floor to look around. One of the smaller frog creatures was using a giant fork to scrape the grass off the floor into a big pile. She drew back into the corner she had fallen asleep in. She rose up a bit so she could look out of the window. She was on the back side of the barn. She could see the tree line. Maybe once the frog creature left, she could sneak over into the trees.
Suddenly her stomach growled loudly. She clapped her hand to her middle, praying it wasn’t so loud the frog creature on the floor below could have heard it. The scraping stopped for a moment, then continued on. She breathed a small sigh of relief. She was starving. She was thirsty again, too, and she had to go to the bathroom badly.
The frog creature below stopped scraping the floor again. She heard footsteps walking away. She crept quietly over to the ladder. She waited to see if it would return.
Just as she as she decided it was safe and began to put her leg over the side of the floor to go down the ladder, she saw a shadow approach the barn door. She drew back so quickly she almost lost her balance and fell over. She scuttled on her backside like a crab, trying to get away from the edge before she was seen.
She could just see the creature over the edge of the floor as it approached. It walked straight over to the ladder. Her heart started pounding and she couldn’t breathe. But the creature wasn’t climbing the ladder. It turned and walked away, back out of the barn. Glory crawled back over to the window and watched the creature heading back toward the farm house.
She crawled back toward the ladder, listening for any movement. The animals must have been let out of their stalls because it was silent in the big barn. She had to get out of there before she got caught!
She carefully hung her leg over the edge of the floor, feeling for the ladder with her foot. Once she had one foot on the top rung, she began the climb down on shaky legs.
At the bottom of the ladder was a pile of something wrapped in a cloth. On top of the cloth lay an apple. She looked at it. Had that creature known she was here? It had brought her food? She picked up the apple and the cloth bundle. It smelled like food. Her stomach growled again. She drew back a corner of the cloth. Inside was some kind of meat and bread. It looked different than anything she had ever eaten before, but it smelled okay. She rewrapped the cloth around the food.
She stopped at the water pipe and got another drink. Then she limped out of the back of the barn, looking carefully around for any sight of the creatures, and started toward the tree line. She was a little over halfway to the trees when she heard growling behind her. She turned, looking over her shoulder. There was some kind of dog running toward her, growling and making a strange croaking bark. She ran, as fast as her sore legs would carry her.
She had just made it into the trees when she heard a croaking call off in the distance behind her. The dog stopped, looked toward the call, and then looked back at her. He turned around and headed back toward the barn.
Glory sighed in relief. She kept walking among the trees, watching over her shoulder so often that she tripped on a tree root and fell, scratching her already scraped palms again. She looked around. There was nothing but trees around her. She stepped behind a large tree to use the bathroom.
Once she was done, she tried to figure out which way she should go. She could only catch glimpses of the blue sky above her through the tree limbs. At least it was nice and cool in the woods, not like yesterday when she was walking in the hot sun.
She started walking again, more carefully this time, watching where she was stepping. She came to a rather open area with a tiny patch of sunlight and sat down to eat the food the creature had brought for her. The meat was unlike anything she had ever tasted. Different, but it was okay. The bread was thick and grainy with a nutty taste to it. Also different, but it was sort of delicious. The apple didn’t taste anything like an apple. Almost more like a peach and a pear mixed together. It was sweet and juicy and helped quench her thirst from the dry bread and meat.
After she was finished eating, she lay back in the small patch of sunlight for a few minutes, enjoying the warmth after the cool shade of the trees. She still didn’t know where she was, how she had gotten there or how she was going to find her way back home, but she wasn’t quite as scared as she had been yesterday. The smaller frog creature had been nice to her and helped her by bringing her food. Surely she would find someone else who would help her.
Glory rose to her feet. She wasn’t going to find her way home lying here all day. She didn’t know what direction to go. She looked around but couldn’t get any sense of direction through all of the trees. She started walking.
She was getting tired again. She had been walking for ages and the trees hadn’t thinned out at all. She hadn’t seen any sign of a path or anything. No animals. Not even birds. Just trees, that went on and on.
She sat down for a while to rest, leaning her head back against a tree trunk. She felt like crying again, but she didn’t even have the energy to do that. She closed her eyes.
A moment later she sat up. Was that water she heard? Yes! It sounded like water running. She stood up and listened carefully. Where was it coming from? She turned around in a circle. There! She began walking slowly; carefully listening for the direction the sound was coming from. The sunlight seemed to be getting brighter, too. She walked faster.
A few yards more and the trees thinned out and she could see sunlight. The water sounded very close. Suddenly she walked out of the trees to see a stream that ran along the tree line. There was a beautiful meadow on the other side of the stream.
Glory giggled happily as she tried to walk down the slippery bank at the water’s edge. Her feet slipped out from under her and she slid down the rest of the way on her backside. Oh, well, her pants were ruined anyway. What could a little more mud and dirt hurt them?
Glory could see a warped reflection of herself in the clear water at the edge of the stream. Her hair was a mess, all matted with dry grass sticking in it. Her clothes looked awful. She waded into the water and took a small sip of water she cupped in her hand. It tasted wonderful. It wasn’t as cold as the water coming from the pipe in the barn she had stayed in. It was almost warm, like cool bathwater.
After she had drunk all she wanted of the clear water, she waded over to the other side. At the deepest point the water only came up to the middle of her chest. The bank on the other side was sandy, like a beach. She had read in school in history class that the people in the old west had used sand to scrub themselves clean in streams like this one. It was worth a try. She knew she was filthy.
Glory waded back out into the water, both hands cupped with sand. She squatted down and got her hair wet, then dumped both handfuls of sand on top of her head and began to rub. It was very rough soap, but it seemed to be working.
When she thought she had gotten all of her hair rubbed clean, she knelt down in the water again and leaned her hair back into it to rinse it. They hadn’t said anything about this part in the book she had read. The sand didn’t come out very easily. She moved over a few feet into the water where the current was the strongest and dipped her head back into it again. She used her fingers to comb the rough sand from her hair. After she had gotten most of the sand out of her hair, she moved closer to the bank and got more sand. She began scrubbing at her clothes and exposed skin.
It was very rough, but at least she felt sort of clean again. She stepped out of the water and sat down on the bank to dry off in the sun. Her shoes squished with each step she took. She took them off, dumped the water out of them and laid them in the sun to dry. She did the same with her pants and socks. Her blouse was thin; it would dry quickly in the sun and the light breeze, so she left it on.
She combed her fingers through her hair to separate the strands so they would dry faster. She lay back on the bank of the stream and closed her eyes. She dozed in the warm sunlight for a bit, and then got up to check her clothes. Her shoes were almost dry. The front of her pants was dry, but the bottom side was still wet. She turned them over and sat back down, looking around at the beautiful scene surrounding her. The water gurgled in the stream and the meadow shone with flowers. There were a few small trees scattered in the center of the meadow. She had never seen such a pretty place, not even in pictures.
There was only one thing missing. She still had seen no sign of any animals. Seen no birds flying or heard them calling. No bugs buzzing around or creeping across the ground. Where was she, anyway?